As the Czech nation and international community mourns the loss of one of the fathers of East European democracy movement which helped to end Europe´s Cold War divide, I assume this is the right time to recall Vaclav Havel’s outstanding achievements and unsurpassed legacy.
FORMATIVE YEARS
Vaclav Havel was born into a well-to-do family of architects and entrepreneurs. After the communists took power in 1948, he suffered due to his “capitalist” background and from class discrimination, and was forbidden to study.
Havel came to political consciousness in the 1960s when he started to write politically motivated plays with absurd touch (such as The Garden Party or The Memorandum) which won him international reputation as one of the world´s most talented young playwrights.
Havel’s beliefs crystallized in a mixture of political liberalism of prewar Czechoslovakia, social democracy and philosophy of his own, derived from his reading of Edmund Husserl and concerns posed by materialism and post-industrialism.
PRO-DEMOCRACY MOVEMENT
After the crushing of the Prague Spring and Soviet army invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, Vaclav Havel became increasingly drawn into political struggle against Czechoslovakian communist dictatorship which he called Absurdistan. He quickly became a leader of Czechoslovakia´s opposition and founder of “Charter 77” manifesto movement for freedom of speech which won him vast respect abroad and harsh persecutions from the regime at home. For his bold dissent, he spent many years in prison which badly affected his delicate health.
“VELVET REVOLUTION”
When the disintegration of the Soviet empire in Poland, East Germany and USSR in 1989 made Czechs and Slovaks to also come out onto the streets en masse, Vaclav Havel (just six months after completing a jail sentence) emerged as the major voice of the Czech crowds.
His voice may have fallen silent, but his model of how one can live in truth amid all the disarray and compromises of democratic politics will live on.
Havel (whose role in the east European revolutions of 1989 is broadly compared to Poland’s Lech Walesa’s) was deeply committed to non-violent resistance. His influence and moral standards were the indispensable factors that ensured that the revolution in 1989 was purely “velvet”, not stained with blood. The final peaceful toppling of communist regime in November 1989 ended four decades of Soviet-backed rule and contributed to the fall of the Iron Curtain.
HAVEL THE POLITICIAN
Within weeks, the soft-spoken intellectual was elected the first democratic president of the Czechoslovakia. He held the post from December 1989 until 1992, and then of the Czech Republic from 1993 until he retired in 2003 due to bouts of ill health.
Though Vaclav Havel strongly opposed split of the Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and Slovakia and stepped down from his position as president in 1992 in protest, his non-aggressive approach also helped ensure an equally peaceful "velvet divorce" of the Czechoslovakia in 1993.
Havel undoubtedly shaped the young Czech democracy and brought to the presidency of the Czech Republic both moral authority and prestige. He was able to speak on many difficult issues, such as globalization, religion, human rights, the past, arts etc. In fact, Havel has become a well-known icon of the Czech Republic abroad. His most important achievements have been in foreign policy. He was a committed “euro-optimist” and his strongly pro-EU views considerably influenced Czech politicians in pushing for the EU membership. He also helped to lay the foundations of rapprochement between the Czechs and Germany and facilitated the country’s entry into NATO. He strongly advocated for central Europe´s special place at the heart (not the edge) of Europe.
HIS LEGACY
Vaclav Havel’s approach aspired towards a more humane politics—or capitalism with a human face, as he distrusted market´s “invisible hands”. He stated: “Politics should be ethics put into practice. This means taking a moral stand not for practical purposes, in the hope that it will bring political results, but as a matter of principle.” Havel rejected narrow nationalism and materialism and was similarly concerned about environmental issues.
Havel’s motto which defined the velvet revolution for many Czechs was: Truth and love must prevail over lies and hate. Though during the post-Communist years his words became a kind of cliché as enthusiasm for new freedoms collided with disillusion at state spending cuts and political corruption, his legacy is not about to disappear anytime soon. His thoughts and humane approach to politics might be the source of inspiration for Czech, European and international policy makers as well as to other pro-democracy movements around the world. In these perilous years of economic crisis, Havel´s idealism surely leaves us with some hope.
That the Czech Republic and Europe owes Vaclav Havel a profound debt was proven true after his death on December 18, 2011, when Czech citizens streamed in thousands to sign condolence books and bid farewell to their beloved leader. The Czech Government announced a three-day national mourning which culminated in a state funeral, attended by many international leaders and statesmen (such as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former President Bill Clinton, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy).
Havel’s voice has fallen silent, but his model of how one can live in truth amid all the disarray and compromises of democratic politics will live on.
He was an inspiration and will remain so.
The writer is the ambassador of the Czech Republic to Nepal
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